More grief on way after day of power cuts

Wild winds knocked out power to more than 1000 Auckland homes and tore down trees yesterday while thunder and lightning shook the city.

And it's likely there's more to come with wintry cold showers on the horizon.

About 4pm yesterday, strong winds blew a tree on to a powerline in Titirangi knocking out power to more than 1000 houses for more than two hours as crews worked to repair the line.

By 6.30pm, power was restored to all but 230 houses.

Vector spokeswoman Sandy Hodge said although just one line was down on Konini Rd, for safety reasons they had to cut power to a larger grid while they isolated the problem.

Throughout the afternoon there were also minor outages in Piha, Kumeu, Muriwai, Epsom, Te Atatu and Patumahoe.

More than 1200 homes also lost power in Rotorua with seven unplanned outages on the network due to the storm.

The complex low weather system also caused a ceiling to collapse at a home in Papakura.

Gale-force winds at Manukau Heads and Whangaparaoa reached more than 90km/h while winds at Auckland Airport gusted up to 70km/h and reached 63km/h on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

And an impressive thunder and lightning storm shook homes across the city while rain flooded parts of the region.

Heavy showers caused flooding in the Karangahake Gorge between Waihi and Paeroa while Auckland's highways saw surface flooding, although the New Zealand Transport Agency said it did not cause any significant issues.

MetService forecaster Emma Blades said that as the low pressure system finally pulled away to the east of New Zealand cold showers would take its place.

The North Island is set to fare only slightly better than the South Island with Wellington temperatures staying in the low teens and Auckland getting down to single digits at night.

And the ski fields are also likely to get a healthy top-up this week, with snow showers forecast down to around 1000 metres and an icy blast set to hit the country tomorrow.